Softball: Coming Back Swinging

Coming back from a season restricted by quarantine, the Mitty Varsity Softball Team has had an amazing first half of their season, winning 17 games and losing only two. This team clearly works well together, which is especially impressive given that much of the varsity team has never experienced a full softball season at Mitty. So, you might be wondering how this team has managed to come back from quarantine as energetic and as unified as ever.

Well, despite the ups and downs over the past couple of years, certain values have remained the same: teamwork and good team chemistry on and off the field.

Many players say that this has been the key to their success this season. Senior Taryn Kern says, “We were very limited last year with our ability to create team chemistry when we didn’t have the chance to get to know each other very well, so it’s nice to get back to bonding as a team.” With dozens of team dinners at restaurants or player’s houses or simply hanging out after school, the girls have had the chance to get to know each other and become a more tight-knit program. The chemistry they have has not only helped them play better softball, but it has also helped them persevere through bad days and lift each other up when they are down. This ability to rely on each other and know that your teammates are there to back you is something that sets the Mitty softball team apart.

The coaches throughout the program have helped foster this environment as well by always preaching the importance of respecting one another and always being a team player. The players have always been told not to focus on only themselves or the glory of a play but how each step, each decision, affects the team. While individuals are important, everyone within the Mitty softball program knows that it is the team as a whole that makes a good team a great one.

This sense of community is present throughout the program: between coaches and players and between upperclassmen and underclassmen. Sophomore, Lindsey Miller, says “Our chemistry on and off the field this year is amazing and the support we have for each other is unmatched.” While some players got to experience softball season before COVID and some of the younger girls first joined in the middle of quarantine, all of the players and coaches are equally excited to be back on the field together bringing their same values but a new energy to the season. 

Despite a tough loss to them earlier this year, the Mitty softball team is preparing to face their biggest rivals, Saint Francis, again on May 4. The girls have put in a ton of work and effort so far and hope, using that momentum, to make it all the way to the WCAL and CCS championships.